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In a world in which so many messages are being sent to consumers in so many different ways, in a world of hurry up sound bites, I must now admit that flash is the magical substance that can cut through all the mush and send the clearest message. 

Richard Branson is all marketing. He is all arms and legs and the more outrageous he is, the more people believe that Virgin Atlantic and everything connected to it is just wonderful. I put it to test. I said to people, ‘United is a very big airline. We have 575 aircraft. How big is Virgin Atlantic?’ They say ‘Well 100 planes, maybe 75?’ When I told them it’s 18 planes and growing to 23, the reaction was almost always the same, ‘Come on, on have you got to be kidding.’

Excerpted from Pg 255 of ‘Lessons from the heartland of American Business’ by Gerald Greenwald